By Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst - NBC News
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday indicted four Iranian intelligence agents
for plotting the kidnapping of a
Brooklyn-based
writer and human rights activist
.
The defendants, who all reside in Iran, were identified as Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori, and face charges of planning the kidnapping of a Brooklyn journalist, writer and human rights activist critical of the Iranian regime.
There is a fifth defendant, identified as Niloufar Bahadorifar, for being the alleged financial supporter of the deed.
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Although the writer has not been fully identified in court documents,
Masil Alinejad confirmed to NBC News that she is the target of the kidnapping plan
.
"I have been the target of attacks for several years, but this is the first time that such a bold move has been devised and thwarted," Alinejad said in an email Tuesday night.
NBC News
Alinejad wrote in 2020 for
The Washington Post
that she learned of the Iranian regime's intention to kidnap her.
"It has been a horrible experience, but I cannot say it was completely unexpected.
The regime has tried many forms of intimidation to silence me over the years,
" he wrote.
The Prosecutor's Office assures that the Iranian Government ordered the accused to kidnap the author to take her back to Iran.
Farahani, one of the defendants, is an Iranian intelligence official residing in Iran, and Khazein, Sadeghi and Noori are Iranian intelligence assets working for him, the Justice Department said.
[The Maduro regime harasses opposition Juan Guaidó at his home and detains former deputy Freddy Guevara in Venezuela]
According to the prosecution, the defendants in turn hired private investigators, misrepresenting who they were and what they wanted, to
monitor the writer's movements in Brooklyn during 2020 and 2021
.
The investigation carried out by the prosecutors mentions that Farahni's intelligence network sought a way to get the writer out of New York.
Furthermore,
that one of the four defendants sought a "military-style speedboat service
for maritime evacuation out of New York City and sea voyages from New York to Venezuela
, a country whose de facto government has friendly relations with Iran." , the Justice Department noted.